Home Ricerca/Search Bibliografia Links

ROLAND HOLST R.N.

 

Roland Holst was a professor and director of the Rijks Academy in Amsterdam, and one of the most prestigious artists in Holland. Strongly influenced by William Morris, his work was highly personal and featured flawless craftsmanship. He executed only 16 posters, nine of the most brilliant being for the theatre, where he often designed stage sets and costumes. The exceptionally rare Faust is one of the most famous of Dutch posters. The subject matter of Goethe's work fit Roland Holst's Symbolist and deeply moralistic leanings perfectly (he was a devout Socialist). The fact that the poster was created during World War I only heightened the meaning of this work to the artist, who felt that the Germans were the very incarnation of evil. The poster is full of restraint. The structure is symmetrical and extremely simple. The color scheme is limited to two colors, yet achieves an incredible richness through patterning reminiscent of Indonesian motifs (Java was a Dutch colony at the time). In striking contrast to his highly compressed Lucifer, the feeling is replaced by emptiness. Faust contemplates his terrible aloneness as he sells his soul to the devil. It is a poster tour de force.

 


1910

 


1910

1910

1917

 


1918

 


1918

1920

1920


1920